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  • #1

    Billionaire wants EU to fund Google competitors

    This is a funny article. The heir to the Bertelsmann empire wants EU taxpayers to fund competitors to the US internet industry -- an Airbus of the internet industry. But as Google is showing, with $700 million in capital spending just last quarter, that could get awful expensive and a successful outcome is very uncertain.

    Now that I think about it, maybe it would be fun to watch the EU waste tens of billions of Euros for no good.

    From the FT...

    Media heir wants 'Airbus of the web'
    By Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in London
    Financial Times

    Updated: 9:10 p.m. ET July 30, 2006

    Christoph Mohn, the heir to the Bertelsmann media empire, has called for Europe to create an Airbus of the internet, to compete with US giants such as Google and Ebay.

    Mr Mohn, chief executive of Lycos Europe, said his online community and search company would introduce some products to the US market in the next 12 months but European internet companies were operating at a disadvantage to their US rivals.

    "So far, we have not built up a sizeable internet company in Europe," he said. "It's not good for the European Union. Nano-technology, biotechnology and the internet are the growth industries but in most of these the position is not good for Europe." Airbus has recently confirmed that deliveries of its new A380 super-jumbo passenger jet, the world's biggest airliner, will be delayed.

    Mr Mohn endorsed the controversial Franco-German plan to build a state-funded European search engine called Quaero, saying: "It's a little bit like Airbus Industries. I don't think it requires consolidation [of Eur-ope's internet industry] but it needs co-ordination."

    Quaero was launched this year with initial funding of €1.7bn ($2.2bn) to develop voice-based and picture-based search technologies. "[Quaero] is not just about 'let's beat Google'," Mr Mohn said. "It's 'let's build up a competitive internet industry'." Bertelsmann and Lycos Europe are members of the Quaero consortium, which includes Siemens, Deutsche Telekom, Thomson and France Telecom.

    Mr Mohn said Lycos Europe, which in the first half of this year came close to breaking even for the first time, was now ready to enter the US market. The group would take the first of its products to the US on its own or under licence within a year.
    Copyright The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved.
    Last edited by DanS; July 30, 2006, 21:39.
    I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891
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  • #2
    That one had me rolleying majorly.
    DISCLAIMER: the author of the above written texts does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for any offence and insult; disrespect, arrogance and related forms of demeaning behaviour; discrimination based on race, gender, age, income class, body mass, living area, political voting-record, football fan-ship and musical preference; insensitivity towards material, emotional or spiritual distress; and attempted emotional or financial black-mailing, skirt-chasing or death-threats perceived by the reader of the said written texts.

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    • #3
      Some people have no shame when it comes to self-serving rhetoric.

      But I guess this does beg the question of why nobody has built a web industry in Europe. Lycos itself was built by Carnegie Mellon University.
      I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891

      Comment

      • #4
        Mr Mohn said Lycos Europe, which in the first half of this year came close to breaking even for the first time, was now ready to enter the US market. The group would take the first of its products to the US on its own or under licence within a year.


        Didn't they try that already?

        Comment

        • #5
          Perhaps they did. I don't even know what Lycos does anymore.
          I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891

          Comment

          • #6
            Originally posted by DanS
            Some people have no shame when it comes to self-serving rhetoric.

            But I guess this does beg the question of why nobody has built a web industry in Europe. Lycos itself was built by Carnegie Mellon University.
            Haven't you just responded to your own question?
            DISCLAIMER: the author of the above written texts does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for any offence and insult; disrespect, arrogance and related forms of demeaning behaviour; discrimination based on race, gender, age, income class, body mass, living area, political voting-record, football fan-ship and musical preference; insensitivity towards material, emotional or spiritual distress; and attempted emotional or financial black-mailing, skirt-chasing or death-threats perceived by the reader of the said written texts.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by DanS
              Perhaps they did. I don't even know what Lycos does anymore.
              I meant, lycos used to be (in fact still is) a search engine in the US.

              So, what are they talking about?

              Comment

              • #8
                Originally posted by Colonâ„¢
                Haven't you just responded to your own question?
                In what way?
                I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891

                Comment

                • #9
                  Originally posted by Kuciwalker
                  I meant, lycos used to be (in fact still is) a search engine in the US.

                  So, what are they talking about?
                  Who knows? The guy probably wants the EU to fund whatever he's talking about, however.
                  I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    Politicians could justify the massive subsidies which built up airbus and currently keep it going as a job creation scheme. Google, Ebay, and similiar internet firms are notable in that they don't have large numbers of employees but generate large amounts of revenue. It would be hard for a politician to sustain 4-5 billion euros a year in subsidies for 1000 jobs.
                    Try http://wordforge.net/index.php for discussion and debate.

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      More like 10,000 jobs. But I see your point.
                      I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891

                      Comment

                      • #12
                        Originally posted by DanS


                        In what way?
                        "Lycos itself was built by Carnegie Mellon University." - university spin-offs have been much rarer in Europe than in the US.
                        DISCLAIMER: the author of the above written texts does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for any offence and insult; disrespect, arrogance and related forms of demeaning behaviour; discrimination based on race, gender, age, income class, body mass, living area, political voting-record, football fan-ship and musical preference; insensitivity towards material, emotional or spiritual distress; and attempted emotional or financial black-mailing, skirt-chasing or death-threats perceived by the reader of the said written texts.

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                        • #13
                          Even without the university spinoffs, the web industry would be predominately American right now. True, the internet may never have proven supremely lucrative, if Stanford University hadn't given Page and Brin limitless free bandwidth. But that was an indirect, unplanned event. Quite different than what Mohn seems to have in mind.
                          Last edited by DanS; July 30, 2006, 22:58.
                          I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891

                          Comment

                          • #14
                            Silicon Valley exists because of a university initiative. European universities are far less business-minded. And Mohn is obviously clueless.
                            DISCLAIMER: the author of the above written texts does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for any offence and insult; disrespect, arrogance and related forms of demeaning behaviour; discrimination based on race, gender, age, income class, body mass, living area, political voting-record, football fan-ship and musical preference; insensitivity towards material, emotional or spiritual distress; and attempted emotional or financial black-mailing, skirt-chasing or death-threats perceived by the reader of the said written texts.

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                            • #15
                              European universities are almost uniformly public universities and it's tougher for them to be be business-friendly. But it would seem to pretty easy -- even in Europe -- to at least be slightly friendlier and get the ball rolling.
                              I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891

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